How Great Is God's Mercy?

 Isn’t it awe-inspiring when we think of God’s great mercy? When we realize that God can forgive the worst of sinners and pardon the worst of sins if only we humble ourselves before Him and repent?

Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come” (Mat. 12:31-32).

The unpardonable sin is beyond the scope of this post, but let’s think about the rest of that statement for a moment. “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men.” I’m sure we’ve all committed terrible sins, whether in deed, in word, or in thought. And yet God overlooks all of those when we repent and change!

Several stories in the Bible illustrate this fact, that God’s mercy knows virtually no limit. One of my favorites has always been the story of King Manasseh.

Manasseh was the son of King Hezekiah, a righteous and God-fearing man. God’s Word says of Hezekiah, “And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his [fore]father David had done” (2 Chron. 29:2). When Hezekiah kept a Passover feast in Jerusalem, we’re told, “So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem” (2 Chron. 30:26).

But Manasseh didn’t follow his father’s righteous example. Let’s pick up the story in 2 Chron. 33:1-5:

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.

2 But he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.

3 For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he raised up altars for the Baals, and made wooden images; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.

4 He also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem shall My name be forever.”

5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.

All these things would be bad enough, but Manasseh was just getting started. He burned his own children as sacrifices to pagan deities, and added many abominations on top of that. Vv. 6-7 continue,

6 Also he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; he practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger.

7 He even set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.

Yet Manasseh still wasn’t satisfied. There was more evil to be done. 2 Kings 21:16 adds, “Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another.” And 2 Chron. 33:9 tells us, “So Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.”

If any man could be beyond hope, beyond forgiveness, and beyond mercy, it would be Manasseh. From Genesis to Revelation, there’s no one else whose sins could surpass Manasseh’s. And remember, Manasseh had been reared by a Godly father!

Let’s pick up the story again in 2 Chron. 33:10-13:

10 And the LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen.

11 Therefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to Babylon.

12 Now when he was in affliction, he implored the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,

13 and prayed to Him…

Here’s arguably the most evil man in the whole Bible, who turned his back on God and committed the worst abominations imaginable, humbling himself and crying out to the God of his fathers! What was God’s response?

13 …and [God] received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.

15 He took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem; and he cast them out of the city.

16 He also repaired the altar of the LORD, sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel. (2 Chron. 33:13, 15-16).

If the worst of all sinners repents, God will show him mercy! As the Most High tells us in Ezek. 33:14-16,

14 “Again, when I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right,

15 “if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

16 “None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live.”

God doesn't want to destroy, but to show mercy. He wants everyone to repent, so that He can extend mercy. “‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’” (Ezek. 33:11).

It’s easy enough to speak words of repentance, but Manasseh didn’t stop there. He changed his whole way of life!

Unfortunately, not everyone followed suit. Manasseh’s son Amon “did not humble himself before the LORD, as his father Manasseh had humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more and more” (2 Chron. 33:23). Amon died a violent death (v. 24).

The people of Judah didn’t truly repent either, for God required the blood of the innocent at their hands: “Surely at the commandment of the LORD this came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed; for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the LORD would not pardon” (2 Kings 24:3-4).

But Manasseh’s grandson Josiah learned the lesson. Of Josiah, we’re told, “Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him” (2 Kings 23:25).

Centuries before Manasseh, God spared another repentant sinner: Rahab. The city of Jericho had grown so wicked that God told Israel to wipe it off the map — to kill everyone inside, to burn the city, and to leave it as a heap of ruin forever (Josh. 6). But the harlot Rahab and her whole family were spared because she cast herself upon the mercy of Israel and Israel’s God. She showed faith (Heb. 11:31).

Now some, for whatever reason, claim that Rahab wasn’t really a harlot, but just an innocent inn-keeper. However, God’s Word calls her a harlot in both Old and New Testaments (Josh. 2:1; 6:17, 25; Heb. 11:31; Jam. 2:25), and does so in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic manuscripts alike. Both the Hebrew (zanah) and Greek (porne) words describe a sexually immoral person, a prostitute.

Again, God will spare the worst of sinners if they “bear fruits worthy of repentance” (Mat. 3:8; Luke 3:8). Rahab is one of many examples. And not only did she forsake her old way of life and begin a new life, but she became the great-great-grandmother of King David, an ancestor of King Manasseh, and an ancestor also of Jesus Christ (Mat. 1:5-16)!

There are many, many more examples of God extending mercy to repentant sinners. He spared Nineveh after the city’s people humbled themselves in dust and ashes (Jon. 3:5-10). To the prophet Jonah, this turn of events was all too predictable. He had hoped for Nineveh’s destruction, and complained to God, “Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm” (Jon. 4:2).

God spared King David from death after he repented of committing adultery and murder (2 Sam. 12:7-13). But it’s worth noting here that when God extends mercy, He doesn’t necessarily spare all the consequences of sin. David suffered for his sin many times over as an example to others (v. 14). Though God is merciful, sin is never worth it!

Jesus “cast seven demons” out of Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9), who became one of His most trusted followers. While on this earth, He regularly ministered to sinners and tried to bring them to repentance: “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Mat. 9:13; Mark 2:17).

And, of course, God humbled Saul of Tarsus, a man who, by his own testimony, “was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man” (1 Tim. 1:13). The man who once breathed “threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1) became the apostle Paul, one of the most diligent workers in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There’s no sane reason for anyone to persist in sinning and refusing to repent. God can forgive all and show mercy to all. The apostle Paul observed that some of God’s people had been the worst of sinners:

9 Have ye not known that the unrighteous the reign [kingdom] of God shall not inherit? Be not led astray; neither whoremongers, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor sodomites,

10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, the reign [kingdom] of God shall inherit.

11 And certain of you were these! But ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were declared righteous, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:9-11; YLT).

No matter what you’ve done with your life up to this point, no matter what sins you’ve committed, no matter where you find yourself at this moment, God will show you mercy if you humble yourself and cast yourself upon His mercy. Even if you’ve been the worst of all sinners, and even if your sins have rivaled those of King Manasseh, God will extend mercy if you repent.

As we’ve seen previously, God hates sin and will destroy the stubborn wicked, but He welcomes repentant sinners with open arms. And thus He gives us all a choice, yearning for us to make the right choice: “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life” (Deut. 30:19).